NSK Calls for Direct Access to Victims of North Korean Abductions

It has been nearly seven months since the return to Japan of the five surviving victims of North Korean abductions, and yet reporters remain barred from direct access to individual abductees. Media contact has been limited to joint news conferences and "pool" interviews.

In an effort to end this unacceptable situation and to ensure the free functioning of the media, NSK and the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan met with abductees' relatives and supporters on May 1.

The relatives have formed the Association of Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea. The abductees' supporters belong to the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea.

The abductees' high-profile return on Oct. 15 prompted Tokyo city news editors at major newspapers and news agencies to agree to restrain coverage in cooperation with media liaison groups in the abductees' communities. The editors have honored their pledge, assigning only a limited number of pre-selected reporters to ask questions at the joint news conferences(see the article in the November, 2002 issue of the NSK News Bulletin Online).

But reporters are losing their patience. Some say they can't ask the questions they want and therefore lack the information they need. Others say that acquiescing to the current restraints sets a bad precedent.

At the May 1 meeting, NSK and the broadcasters' association told the relatives and the abductees' support group that the media appreciate the abductees' "delicate situation." But they also said that they want to find a way of properly covering the issue that overcomes any "misunderstanding" and takes note of the two groups' views.

The media representatives outlined their reasons for seeking expanded access and coverage:

The abductees' situation appears to have greatly changed since they first arrived. All five appear to have become accustomed to living in Japan and seem to understand their current status;

Media organizations are fully aware that the abductees still have relatives in North Korea, yet the strict curbs on direct contact with the victims continue;

The restrictions on coverage leave the media with little other than bland, uniform reports, ruling out any competitive search for the truth; and

Finally, there is even a danger that the true ideas and wishes of the abductees are not being fully or properly presented, as there is no way for a reporter to check his interpretation of abductees' comments.

The two groups said they greatly appreciated the media efforts to keep the coverage under control, saying they value good relations with the media. They also asserted that there are relatively free question-and answer sessions at the joint news conferences, while maintaining that direct individual interviews are still impossible.

The two groups said that although the abductees might look relaxed after six months in Japan; looks can be deceptive. For instance, they all continue to refuse police requests for questioning, out of fear for their relatives in North Korea. Noting that the five are already the victims of a state crime, the two groups asked the media to continue limiting their coverage at least until the relatives in North Korea are allowed to join the abductees in Japan, thereby fundamentally changing the situation.

On the other hand, the media representatives encouraged the two groups to encourage the abductees to speak out about life in North Korea and the nature of that country. The media said such information is of great concern to the Japanese public, saying that exposing such facts could change attitudes in government and among the public. They said access to more information might even lead to a faster resolution of the whole matter.

Amid the restrictions on media contact, one incident especially stood out for reporters. In the case of Hitomi Soga, town officials went so far as to falsify their press releases on her daily schedule in mid-March. Authorities in Mano town, in Niigata Prefecture, had been issuing a daily update on Soga's activities, supposedly in consultation with Soga. For some days in mid-March, she was said to have stayed home all day, alone. It was later revealed that she had been in a hospital in Tokyo for surgery to remove cancer from a lung.

Local media representatives in Niigata Prefecture protested strongly about what they considered to be an outright betrayal. The town office and central government apologized to local media for purposely concealing the medical situation. The media see the incident as the inevitable negative result of such curbs on free media access to the abductees.

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Annual Reception for Foreign Correspondents Held Nihon Shinbun Kyokai (The Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association) on April 23 held the annual Reception for the Foreign Press in Japan at Restaurant ALASKA, 10th floor of the Nippon Press Center Building in Tokyo. The reception, marking its 43rd occurrence this year, aims to promote friendship and understanding among members of the domestic and foreign press. This year the reception was held at a time when the U.S. and U.K.-led war in Iraq was coming to an end and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was reported to be spreading, mainly in Asia. Touching upon these extremely grave affairs that occurred in succession, Morio Sakagami, Vice Chairman of NSK and Chairman of the Board of the Kyoto Shimbun, said in his welcome speech, "It goes without saying that a serious time like the present sees increasing expectations for the press, whose mission is to report news accurately and fairly to as wide an audience as possible." Forty-two years ago, when NSK held the first reception, there were about 250 correspondents, including some Japanese, representing 85 foreign news organizations. Over 40 years later, the number has grown to 942 persons from 262 companies, according to Foreign Press Center/Japan. Although it is said that the foreign press is turning away from Japan, such growth proves that Japan still serves as the main press center of Asia, noted Sakagami. The participants, totaling about 140 persons this year, included correspondents from media in Brazil, China, France, Indonesia, South Korea, the United States and so forth, as well as embassy personnel, including the ambassadors of France, the Netherlands, the Philippines and Thailand and members of the NSK board of directors. Chugoku Shimbun's Tashiro Wins NKC Award The Nippon Kisha Club announced on April 21 that Akira Tashiro, a special staff editor at the Chugoku Shimbun, is the winner of the NKC award for fiscal 2003. The kisha club is known in English as the Japan National Press Club. The club said that Tashiro is being honored for his contribution to the Chugoku Shimbun's special and serialized articles on nuclear problems as the pressing issue in human history. Tashiro joined the Chugoku Shimbun in 1972 as a staff employee in the dispatch division. In recognition of his robust appetite for information and the command of English, he was assigned to the News Division of the Editorial Department in 1981, at the age of 33. Since then, he has consistently kept up to date with the nuclear age from the international perspective, while maintaining a particular focus on the relevance of Japan's experience as the first country to be attacked with atomic weapons. He has depicted the history of nuclear weapons from the outset to the present by earnestly interviewing the central personalities in the nuclear superpower the United States, and other countries. Based on his journalistic activities, he planned and contributed special articles including a series of articles titled "The 21st Century, the Nuclear Age and the Negative Legacies." In another series, titled "The Unknown Hibakusha - the Actuality of Depleted Uranium Shells," which started in April 2000, he called for a ban on the manufacture and use of depleted uranium munitions well before the problem of exposure to the weapons became an international issue. In 1987, he completed a master's degree in international relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy of Tufts University. In 1996, he was promoted to staff editor, and since February of this year, he has been a special staff editor. He won the Vaughan-Ueda Memorial Prize in fiscal 1995 and the Waseda Award for Journalism in memory of Tanzan Ishibashi in 2002. The NKC award is given annually to a reporter who has recorded outstanding achievements in the field of journalistic activities and who has enhanced the credibility and authority of Japanese journalism.